US adults could boost their life expectancy simply by reducing the amount of time they spend seated each day and by cutting down daily TV viewing, according to a study published in the online journal BMJ Open.

The researchers used data collected for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in order to determine how much time US adults spent sitting down and watching TV each day. In addition, they examined five published studies on sitting time and deaths from all causes. Combined, the five studies involved almost 167,000 adults.